Yamazaki Distillery Report April 2023

EDIT: Several folks pointed out the distillery is now closed until fall for renovations. Maybe this will be useful to someone traveling later in the year.

==========

I was looking for something recent like this before my trip to the distillery and couldn’t find it – hopefully it’s useful to someone else.

tl;dr: Book your tickets on the Yamazaki website in your home country when the window opens (at least a month in advance). You need a ticket for the tour, the gift shop, and the tasting room, so don’t show up without one. The tour info is basic, but I enjoyed the visit. The paid tasting room offered legendary whisky at a relatively affordable price, the gift shop was pretty slim pickings but did have a limit 1 300ml bottle that may or may not be something special – haven’t had a chance to taste it yet.

Here’s the full write up:

I went to the Yamazaki distillery on April 27, 2023. I booked the ticket on March 7th from my home in Oregon, loading the page right at 5PM PST. Yamazaki releases all tickets for the next month on the same day, and it’s a lot like trying to get hot concert tickets. Have a browser or two ready. I think my position in line was something like 2000, my wife came in a few seconds after and was about 1500 higher. I was able to get tickets on the day I wanted, and all time slots were available. I checked again with my wife’s when it went through (just for kicks) and verified that she also could have booked anything. Two hours later everything was gone.

We arrived at the distillery about five minutes before the tour. I think I put in a credit card when I booked, but payment was due at the door (1k yen per person). We definitely cut it too close; Japan is punctual, and the tour started right at 1:30. They talked for maybe five minutes at reception then started walking. I think if you’re not there on time, the tour may go without you.

The tour was all in Japanese, and the guide spoke only limited English. There are iOS/Android apps to get an audio tour in other languages, but it definitely has less content than the Japanese; I’d finish hearing my little description for a landmark, and the tour guide would still be talking for minutes. If you know anything about distilling you’re not going to learn anything from the audio guide, but I found the tour itself enjoyable. The smell of the distillation room was awesome, as was the barrel house.

After touring the facilities you go to an auditorium for a guided tasting. Again, the English content is a little lacking, but it’s clear enough what to do. They had us taste two components of the Yamazaki blend – a white oak aged distillate and a “wine barrel” aged distillate that might have been sherry cask (?). Both were excellent. Then we tasted the NAS Yamazaki (fine), and finally were told to “enjoy a pour however you like,” which in practice meant 100% of the people of the room made highballs. There were some nice rice cracker snacks and a couple pieces of ho-hum chocolate to go with your highball.

That was the end of the paid tour, at which point we were able to go to the gift shop and paid tasting room. Both of these were by reservation only, so if you don’t have a ticket, don’t bother showing up. The paid tasting was awesome; they had a flight of Yamazaki 18, Hakushu 18, and Hibiki 21 for \~1800 yen (\~$14). They also sold a la carte pours of Yamazaki 25, Hakushu 25, Hibiki 30, and some other less legendary stuff (though they did have a 12 year mizunara cask that also seems pretty special). The old pours were \~3700 yen each (\~$27). The prices are from my fuzzy memory, but they’re in the ballpark. All pours are 15ml (about half an ounce), and the sign says 3 pours per person. My wife and I got the 18/21 flight, plus pours of the Yamazaki 25, Hakushu 25, and mizunara cask 12 year. I was really hoping the older stuff wouldn’t blow me away, but the Yama 25 was the best by a country mile, and likely the best whisky I’ve had, period. In retrospect, the only change I would have made was swapping the Hibiki 21 for the 30.

After tasting through all that with my wife, I was tipsy enough that I didn’t think I’d appreciate more, though I’ve read reports of other people going back for a second round and being served.

The gift shop had minimal whisky, which I expected after reading other people’s reports. Their only interesting Japanese stuff was a small bottle (200ml?) of regular NAS Yamazaki packaged with a small glass (limit 2 per person), and a 300ml bottle of “Distillery Limited Edition Yamazaki” packaged with a highball glass and a box of the mediocre chocolates for 3200 yen (\~$24, limit 1 per person). The limited edition had literally zero other info; no age statement, no info on the blend. Just 300ml of mystery juice. My tasting wrapped up around 4:00PM, but there were still plenty of the limited edition gift sets on the shelf when I reached the shop.

I skipped the NAS Yamazaki, and only bought one of our two allocated distillery limited gift sets, since I couldn’t figure out what was in the pretty bottle. Checking on Amazon Japan after the tour I found the distillery limited bottle by itself selling for 4x the price, so it’s definitely something people care about enough to pay a premium on the Japanese secondary market. Live and learn.

BONUS CONTENT: My take-home whisky buying experience at other stores

I researched before I went and knew that all the premium Japanese stuff would not be available at retail prices. I saw plenty of NAS Hakushu and Yama for 10k yen (\~$75), and 12 year age stated for about double that. These are not exciting prices for me, I still occasionally catch the age stated stuff at Costco periodically for less. Given that Japanese whisky is if anything more rare in Japan, I focused on bourbon. I picked up 3 bottles of 12 year old Wild Turkey 101 at Bic Camera in Shinjuku, on the advice of Reddit. It is exceptional stuff, at least for the current bourbon market. My palate is not good enough for tasting notes, but it reminds me strongly of the mid-range bottles I was picking up in 2010 back when I was first getting into whiskey. So +1 recommendation here. With the tax-free discount they worked out to just about $50/bottle. They still had a couple others left on the shelf, so it seems like there’s still a decent amount of it around.

I did not see any Blanton’s variants or Evan Williams 12 year, but I wasn’t looking very hard. This was an anniversary/tourist trip for me, not a bourbon hunting trip 🙂 You might have better luck going to specialty stores. Wild Turkey 101 8 year was everywhere, but from what I read it’s a pretty small step from the regular 101, and didn’t seem worth devoting bag space to.

I didn’t want to come home with zero Japanese whisky, so I picked up a bottle each of Super Nikka and Nikka Session at Don Quijote. Super Nikka was \~2400 yen ($18), the Session was 3800 ($28). Both of these are firmly in the “highball whisky” category for me. They pack enough flavor to handle the dilution, but read very “hot” if you have them neat; lots of alcohol burn.

I also thought long and hard about picking up a bottle of Chartreuse at Bic Camera for \~$40. In addition to whisk(e)y, I like cocktails, and the Chartreuse drought seems not to have reached Japan yet. Something to consider if you’re struggling to fill up your suitcases, but be aware that Japan sells an 80 proof bottling in addition to the standard 110 proof, so make sure you’re getting the right one.

I did not see any Nikka From the Barrel, which I know can be a good value pickup. It seems like they do annual releases of it or something, and it’s cheap when it comes out, then gets more expensive/harder to find as it dries up. I checked the price on [Amazon.co.jp](https://Amazon.jp), and it seemed like it was selling for \~4.5k yen, which is \~double MSRP (though still a decent price), and it was competing for bag space with things I can’t pick up state-side. Plus I never actually saw it in a store. As an aside, checking on [Amazon.co.jp](https://Amazon.jp) for something you’re interested in is a good way to get an idea of stock. Japan is a pretty efficient market when it comes to spirits, since I think individuals can sell whisky on consignment or something. Anyhow, if Amazon lists the price of the thing you want substantially above MSRP, I think you’ll need to be lucky to find it on a shelf at normal price, especially in big cities. Also, if you’re sticking in one place long enough, most hotels will let you get Amazon deliveries. Have the booze come to you!

My flight home had a layover in Vancouver, which pretty much nixed picking up duty free at Narita – you go through US customs in YVR, then go through regular security like a domestic flight. You never see your checked luggage, so there’s no way to stash a 700ml bottle before security makes you pour it out. It’s possible you can get it through with your carry-on if it’s in a sealed duty free bag with recent receipt, but what limited reports I found online reported mixed success at this.

I looked around the duty free shops in Narita for grins since I had a little time, but found nothing compelling anyhow. I did see the same Super Nikka I bought at Don Quijote for sale in a fancy box for more than 3 times the price. I would not recommend paying 8k JPY for it; it is not that good.

Hope this helps somebody. Happy drinking!